[A-List] Robert Fisk on Iraq

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Robert Fisk: Saddam's merry dance cannot hide the sad inevitability of
events
The Independent, 13 November 2002

How seriously they took the Baghdad theatricals. "A resounding 'no' from the
Iraqi parliament,'' was the headline on NBC's local affiliate here in North
Carolina. "Assembly in Baghdad shows its outrage,'' was the headline in USA
Today. As if the Iraqi parliament was really a parliament, as if Saddam
Hussein's recent 100 per cent vote was not a fiction.

"US officials'' - those all-purpose sources for lazy journalists - were
quickly on hand to suggest that this was "posturing''. I really needed a "US
official" to tell me that. But I began to wonder, given the po-faced
reporting and the presentation of Iraqi news here, if the naive world of
Saddam and the naive world of America don't sometimes connect. It's as if
Saddam knows this nonsense is taken seriously. Hitler was a tyrant and
Saddam is a tyrant. But Hitler wasn't a clown.

Of course, the Iraqi parliament's vote doesn't mean a thing. Two hundred and
fifty senators rejecting UN arms inspections and then allowing the "wise
leadership'' of Saddam to make the final decision is about as serious as an
Egyptian television serial (Egyptian serials are all about families in
crisis and Saddam is addicted to them). Mr Salim al-Kubaisi's remark - he is
the head of the "Iraqi parliament's Arab and International Relations
Committee" took the biscuit. Parliament, he announced, had full confidence
in Saddam's "great ability to assess the situation'' and commended the
Leader's "deep vision''. This was the vision, remember, that gave us the
Iran-Iraq war (one million dead) and the invasion of Kuwait.

Then we have the leader's beloved son Uday - still bearing the scars of his
assassination attempt - who intervened on the side of inspections. He
thought the UN inspectors should be accepted into Iraq (which means Saddam
agrees) but there should be some Arabs among the inspectorate.

This is not the first time we have heard that. Several Arab states have
suggested the same thing though I don't think Hans Blix, the chief weapons
inspector, is going to be adding Saudi scientists to his team. The real
Iraqi fear is that the CIA will use the UN inspectors - just as they did
before - and that the inspectors, far from searching for weapons of mass
destruction, will be fingering sites for bombardment if/when America decides
to invade.

But it's back to the old story. Saddam is going to run this one up to the
wire on Friday at which point his "wisdom" and "vision" will prevail and the
UN inspectors will be welcome and the American media will say - just a
guess - "Back from the brink''. Oh, yes Saddam understands how to play the
clown. And with each circus act, he makes the Americans look just that
little bit more silly. A dangerous trick to play right now.

A US Marines officer came up to me after I gave a lecture at the University
of North Carolina last night to tell me he was departing from his young wife
and child in three days' time to go to Central Command in Tampa for the
start of a longer journey. It's the same all over America. Just down from
here at Fort Bragg, elements of the 82nd Airborne are said to be on the
move.

A vast American armada is slowly taking shape - huge quantities of armour
and ordnance are being moved around the world right now from the United
States - and most of America doesn't even know it. "See you there,'' I said
to the marine last night as we parted company. "Oh, are you coming to
Central Command?'' he asked innocently. "No," I told him, "You're going to
Iraq."